The nonchalance with which Ottawa is dealing with the nullification of the vote in Etobicoke-Centre is more than a little off-putting. The man who currently occupies the seat in the House of Commons, Conservative Ted Opitz, is appealing Ontario Superior Court Justice Thomas Lederer’s decision, which is both unsurprising and entirely within his rights. But there is some debate over whether the Supreme Court will deign to hear that appeal before the autumn — the question being whether these circumstances are extraordinary enough to interrupt their lengthy summer repose.

They are, and then some. If the Conservatives held a majority or minority of a single seat, people would be howling for redress all day and night. But the principle is the same. We shouldn’t be casually sipping mint juleps on our chaises longues just because we now think of MPs as catatonic herd animals. It’s not like Mr. Opitz retired early, leaving an empty chair. He’s there, every day, making speeches and voting on important matters. On May 10, the current iteration of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s refugee reform bill — one of the most controversial pieces of legislation currently before Parliament — passed committee by a vote of six to five. Mr. Opitz was one of the six.

OK, sure, his Conservative vote is just as good as the one that will replace him there if he’s eventually ousted. But again: Officially, parliamentarians are still presumed to be individuals, not cogs in a partisan machine. As such, this situation surely constitutes something of a democratic emergency. Every day this drags on, the dossier of Things Ted Opitz Is Doing that He Maybe Shouldn’t Be Doing gets thicker. Conceivably, the Supreme Court might not rule on this until October — and if they uphold the decision against Mr. Opitz, Prime Minister Stephen Harper would then have six months to call a by-election. At least nobody voting on behalf of the people of Etobicoke-Centre would be an improvement over a guy who can’t be determined to have won the election voting on their behalf, but it’s still an intolerable and totally unnecessary potential timeline.

The former and perhaps future Etobicoke-Centre Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj toldThe Hill Times that Mr. Opitz stepping aside would be the “honourable” thing to do, which implies there is something dishonourable in his current conduct. I don’t think so; he’s just following the rules. His appeal is considerably less obnoxious than the Liberals’ shameless public insinuations that Mr. Wrzesnewskyj was scammed out of an election victory, when Justice Lederer found no evidence of any fraud whatsoever.

Maybe there ought to be changes to the process. But for now, we just need to light a fire under the process we have. Mr. Opitz announced his appeal on May 28. That was a week ago — surely enough time for the Supreme Court to at least decide to hear the case. It took Justice Lederer just about a month, from start to finish, to hear the case and issue his ruling. By the end of summer we should either be staring down a by-election — waiting six months would indeed be dishonourable — or congratulating Mr. Opitz on his victory at the Supreme Court. If we’re still waiting for the Court’s decision, people should be banging pots and pans on Parliament’s front lawn. Etobicoke Centre needs an MP.

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.